Last night we attended the World Cup Final at Soccer City in Johannesburg. It felt special to be there, and the atmosphere is something I will never forget. To see Nelson Mandela was something special, and everyone in the stadium gave him the standing ovation he deserves, football players are often referred to as heroes by the media (falsely), but Nelson Mandela is a real hero, and a great inspiration for millions of people.

The game did not flow very well, and compared to football played in the 3/4th playoff game from the previous night was disappointing, but lets face it, if I was only interested in the football I could have stayed at home and watched it on the tele with instant replays, attending the games has been as much about the atmosphere as the game itself. The Dutch played dirty and unfortunately their tournament will probably be remembered that way.

As with our other games, we met people in the stands, took lots of photos and did our regular video introductions…

Alex from the train to Soccer City

Andy introduces the World Cup final (be sure to listen to my score prediction)

Interesting take on the game from two sides of the pond. The USA are treating it like a win, and the English are treating it like a loss. The New York Post even has this great headline:

News of the World headline?

The mistake from Green was a howler, it’s going to be on blooper reels for years to come. Such a basic mistake and one that on any other day would probably have never happened. Perhaps he thought he was about to be attacked by a swarm of bees, perhaps he had a bet on the game, who knows, it was a howler. The thing was though, the rest of the team played crap. Rooney was no where to be seen, and I’m not even sure Lampard and Terry were on the pitch? On paper England have a great squad, unfortunately they don’t play on paper they play on grass.

It’s a crime how FIFA have totally screwed up the sales of tickets. For tickets being available only on the internet for the majority of the ticket sales phase it meant they excluded a great deal of South Africans that would have liked to attend. I’m sure the internet sales concept came to somebody sitting in a comfy office in Paris, with their 50mb connection, thinking yeah everyone has internet now days.

Hopefully the stadiums will start to fill up, even if FIFA start giving out tickets!

I have to admit, I am very excited about this game. The USA probably have it easier going into the game as there is no pressure to win, in fact pretty much whatever the result (unless it’s 10-0) the USA should be OK. Whereas England, every expects them to win, anything less than a win will be viewed as failure.

The USA have some strong, skilled players now, with many of them playing in professional leagues outside the USA, so their skill level has come up a great deal, which is reflected in their 14th in the world rankings, With US training resources and their “lets go kick some butt” spirit they should never be underestimated.

For England, it will be a case of how well defense plays and if midfield can get it together. On paper England has one of the strongest midfields in the competition, but Lampard and Gerrard have never quite gelled playing together, perhaps now is the time. England often plays better when viewed as the underdog, as the English never wilt in the face of diversity spirit is even stronger than the US kick butt spirit.